What was wrong with Paul Rodgers?

Above posts moved from unconnected 2023 US Tour discussion - new thread started.

Nothing was wrong with him. They had a good time together, Brian and Roger noticed that they still have it in them. Then they decided to part ways. I‘ve personally never been that interested in this collaboration. It didn’t really sound and feel like Queen. QAL comes much closer.

I've heard alternative - but I stress, unproven, just as the above are - rumours that there were issues with Paul committing to rehearsals or something like that.

None of the above I think was ever officially confirmed.

The problem as a friend of mine said ,Q&PR was a beautiful cake without sweetness.

Their shows were just good , lacking some edge, Free and Bad Company songs sounded great, while Queen songs not so, only TYMD, IWIA and from the new ones SINT was good.

Their album was a cosmos flop from the beginning.

If Brian & Roger had decided to carry on would a second album have been better than "TCR" ? Another point worth pointing out was that Brian & Roger put the blame on the record company for poor promotion of the album. If I remember rightly it peaked at number 5 in the UK & number 16 in the US . I am not sure how many weeks it stayed on the chart for ?

Queen in 00s up to 2005 had great sales even in US. GH was selling anout 600-700k copies per year.
Platinum was huge seller in UK, Europe and top 40 in US.
In Japan jewels compilation broke records and their back catalogue did great sales even sold good in Europe.
Their Dvds were selling like hot cakes in whole world, GH 1-2, Wembley and on Fire managed sales like albums. It was phenomenal sales.

And everything were going well , Dvd audio releases , unreleased concert (on fire), the musical drew tickeckts world wide. There was big sales and public interest.
EMI was about to release anthology.
Out of nowhere Queen collaborate with Paul, causing Emi and Queen officialy postpone their anthology for 2009). Between 2005-2008 everything went downhill... The harm in Queen status was huge. For example Queen manage to get number 1 dvd in 2018... Over a decade!
Cosmos flops sold about 50k in UK and flopped in US not even top 50. Their back catalogue sales were in geometric decline.

Gig wise the 2006 US tour was a major flop too. Half empty arenas.

Problem I had with PR was that he wanted to include the Free & Bad Company hits and when I saw them at Brixton Academy, it really didn't go down that well.

People wanted to hear Queen and really didn't want to hear "alright now" etc. Also I didn't enjoy PR's gravelly voice singing Queen songs.

PR obviously had the right to play whatever he liked but you don't get Adam Lambert wanting to play his stuff now. If you wanted to hear that, you can go to an Adam Lambert concert. With Q+AL, you get Queen hits with a different voice.

It was actually Brian and Roger who asked PR if he would perform some material from Free and Bad Company and at quite a few gigs BM and RT seemed to put more effort into those songs than they did some of the Queen songs. As a band they seemed more at home playing those songs too.

The same situation was true of the AL songs that Q+AL have performed, it was Roger and Brian who suggested that they should play something by Lambert.

They were all good to me, but Fire And Water in Super Live in Japan is the best thing they did together, IMHO.

Cheers,

Ogre-

The first tour was exciting to say the least. having Roger and Brian playing together live for a full two hours was just "wow".
Roger shone on that tour and the next. Brian, sadly, let Jamie do a lot of filling in instead of just playing like he used to. There seems to be too much emphasis on trying to get the studio Queen sound rather than the live Queen sound even today with Spike and his damn synth.
Cosmos Rocks tour was even better for Roger - he seemed to enjoy it more, possibly because they were playing some of his new songs.
Yep, to be fair, Paul's voice didn't suit a lot of the songs - he did it his way and it didn't sound 'right' - but then in hindsight, so you really want someone trying to sing like Freddie?
Whilst I wasn't enamoured with Paul' vocals at the time, they were a damn sight better than Adam's when he first started.

Whilst I don't think many folks wanted to hear Paul's own songs, one thing EVERYONE learnt on that tour is this: When you have Brian playing someone else's songs, he makes them so much better.
And when you're 3 yards away from Roger 'fucking' Taylor, watching him drum so close to you, it's just heaven.
The two of them give off so much energy, you can feel it when you're close to them.

I was there too!
Even though it's one of my least favourite songs, it's a shame Under Pressure didn't make the video but at least I got it recorded. It may have been their first live performance of it, but it was pretty damn good and exciting to hear them do something "new".

You know. I much prefer Roger singing UP than Freddie. (so shoot me. meh)

If only Brian & Roger had some new material to include in their show's , I know it's to late now as I doubt if they will do any more big tours .I don't mean writing with Adam Lambert but when you think of all the years after Freddie passed away I think it was around 15 years until they felt able to record "TCR." Then there was a gap of around 4/5 years before they got together with Adam. So that's nearly 20 years of doing very little. I know Brian did "Back To The Light" and "Another World" with tours to support each album. Also Roger recorded "Happiness" and "Electric Fire" and toured small size venues. I actually saw "The Brian May Band" play at the "Royal Concert Hall " in Nottingham on the 24/10/1998 and it was fantastic ,even though Brian had to cope taking on the vocal duties which I think was hard for him. I also saw Roger play "Rock City" in Nottingham on the 31/3/1999 in support of "Electric Fire." Again that was a fantastic gig and Roger had a really good band around him. Of course Roger was involved with "The Cross" but I am not sure how many albums he did with them after Freddie passed away. I suppose Roger & Brian were both mentally shattered after the passing of Freddie as we all were. Which is probably why they felt unable to write together as well as John stepping away from the scene.

Ha ha ! Hi there Brian's Wig hope you are well and having a good weekend. Yes we could have been very close during "The Brian May Band's" show at the "Royal Concert Hall" Nottingham . I thought it was a very good show and a great line up in the band. On Drums-Eric Singer , Bass-Neil Murray - Guitar & Backing Vocals Jamie Moses -Keyboards & Backing Vocals Spike Edney - Backing Vocals Susie Webb & Zoe Nicholas -With Brian May on Lead Vocals & Guitar. I still have the programme from that show in very good condition , that's when bands always had a programme . What are your memories of that show ? I remember it was very ,very loud and Eric Singer did a great Drum solo and they did Cozy Powell's "Dance With The Devil" also I think they did "The Show Must Go On" & "I Want It All." I also really enjoyed Roger at "Rock City" I remember Roger coming out on the stage at the start of the show and going straight into a great version of "We Will Rock You" with both Keith Prior and Roger on the Drums which sounded fantastic. Other highlights were "London Town" , "A Nation Of Haircuts" , "No More Fun" ,"Man On Fire." It Was a very good mix of Queen and Roger's solo material .

Rodgers has never been the kind of front man who used the space a large stage has.

However I have wondered what Freddie would have been like in his 50’s. Jagger and Bruce Dickinson come to mind as front men who still moved around (in Dickinsons case ran around) in their 50’s. There have been plenty who haven’t of course.